Oren Lyons
Encyclopedia
Oren R. Lyons, Jr. is a Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

 Faithkeeper of the turtle clan of the Onondaga and Seneca Nation
Seneca nation
The Seneca are a group of indigenous people native to North America. They were the nation located farthest to the west within the Six Nations or Iroquois League in New York before the American Revolution. While exact population figures are unknown, approximately 15,000 to 25,000 Seneca live in...

s of the Iroquois Confederacy
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...

. Once a college lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 player, Lyons is now a recognized advocate of indigenous rights.

Background, education, and athletic career

Oren Lyons, Jr. was born in 1930 and raised in the culture and practices of the Iroquois on the Seneca
Cattaraugus Reservation
Cattaraugus Reservation is an Indian reservation of the Seneca Indian Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy located in New York. As of the 2000 census, the Indian reservation had a total population of 2,412. Its total area is about 34.4 mi²...

 and Onondaga reservations
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

 in Upstate New York
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is the region of the U.S. state of New York that is located north of the core of the New York metropolitan area.-Definition:There is no clear or official boundary between Upstate New York and Downstate New York...

.

Lyons served in the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...

. He received an athletic scholarships to Syracuse University
Syracuse University
Syracuse University is a private research university located in Syracuse, New York, United States. Its roots can be traced back to Genesee Wesleyan Seminary, founded by the Methodist Episcopal Church in 1832, which also later founded Genesee College...

, where he was awarded the Orange Key for his academic and athletic accomplishments. He graduated from the College of Fine Arts in 1958. A lifelong lacrosse
Lacrosse
Lacrosse is a team sport of Native American origin played using a small rubber ball and a long-handled stick called a crosse or lacrosse stick, mainly played in the United States and Canada. It is a contact sport which requires padding. The head of the lacrosse stick is strung with loose mesh...

 player, Oren was an All-American at Syracuse, where the Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse
Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse
The Syracuse Orange men's lacrosse team represents Syracuse University in NCAA Division I men's college lacrosse. The Orange have won 10 NCAA championship titles, and currently competes as a member of the Atlantic Coast Conference men's lacrosse conference...

 went undefeated during his graduating year. After graduation, Lyons played for several teams, including the New York Lacrosse Club (1959–1965), the New Jersey Lacrosse Club (1966–1970), and the Onondaga Athletic Club (1970–1972).

Upon leaving Syracuse, Lyons pursued a career in commercial art in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, becoming the art and planning director of Norcross Greeting Cards. Outside of work, Lyons exhibited his own paintings during this time. In 1970, Lyons returned to Onondaga
Onondaga County, New York
Onondaga County is a county located in the U.S. state of New York. As of the 2010 census, the population was 467,026. The county seat is Syracuse.Onondaga County is part of the Syracuse, NY Metropolitan Statistical Area....

 to be closer to his cultural heritage. In recognition of his contributions over many years as a teacher of undergraduate and graduate students in the University at Buffalo, Dr. Lyons is listed as SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and Professor Emeritus of American Studies in the UB College of Arts and Sciences.

Activism

In the 1960s, Lyons joined the Red Power movement
Red Power movement
The phrase "Red Power", attributed to the author Vine Deloria, Jr., commonly expressed a growing sense of pan-Indian identity in the late 1960s among American Indians in the United States....

 and joined the Unity Caravan, which traveled through Indian Country
Indian Country
Indian country is a term used to describe the many self-governing Native American communities throughout the United States. This usage is reflected in many places, both legal and colloquial...

 to foster dialogue about traditional tribal values. In 1972, he was a leader in the Trail of Broken Treaties
Trail of Broken Treaties
The Trail of Broken Treaties was a cross-country protest in the United States by American Indian and First Nations organizations that took place in the autumn of 1972...

, a caravan to Washington DC to convince the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Bureau of Indian Affairs
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is an agency of the federal government of the United States within the US Department of the Interior. It is responsible for the administration and management of of land held in trust by the United States for Native Americans in the United States, Native American...

 to honor its treaties with Native American tribes.

In 1977, Lyons helped create the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders and Youth at a meeting in Montana
Montana
Montana is a state in the Western United States. The western third of Montana contains numerous mountain ranges. Smaller, "island ranges" are found in the central third of the state, for a total of 77 named ranges of the Rocky Mountains. This geographical fact is reflected in the state's name,...

. Since then, the Circle has gathered annually at a different site in Indian country
Indian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...

. In 1977, he also was part of the Haudenosaunee delegation to the first World Conference on Racism.

"At first, I wanted to defend the Iroquois. Then my sights broadened to embrace other Indians. Then I saw this had to include defending indigenous peoples all over the world," Lyons said.

In 1981, he traveled with Stephen Gaskin
Stephen Gaskin
Stephen Gaskin is a counterculture hippie icon best known for his presence in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco in the 1960s and for co-founding "The Farm", a famous spiritual intentional community in Summertown, Tennessee...

 and Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin
Ina May Gaskin, CPM, has been described as "the mother of authentic midwifery."-Family:Gaskin was born to an Iowa Protestant family . Her father, Talford Middleton, was raised on a large Iowa farm, which was lost to a bank not long after his father’s accidental death in 1926...

 to New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

 to attend festival at Nambassa
Nambassa
Nambassa was a series of hippie-conceived festivals held between 1976 and 1981 on large farms around Waihi and Waikino in New Zealand. They were music, arts and alternatives festivals that focused on peace, love, and an environmentally friendly lifestyle...

, where he delivered a number of lectures and workshops. At Nambassa he coordinated with Indigenous Maori land rights activists
Land rights
Land law is the form of law that deals with the rights to use, alienate, or exclude others from land. In many jurisdictions, these species of property are referred to as real estate or real property, as distinct from personal property. Land use agreements, including renting, are an important...

 on questions of indigenous people sharing his Native American experiences

For over fourteen years he has taken part in the meetings in Geneva
Geneva
Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

 of Indigenous Peoples of the Human Rights Commission of the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

, and helped to establish the Working Group on Indigenous Populations
Working Group on Indigenous Populations
The Working Group on Indigenous Populations was a subsidiary body within the structure of the United Nations. It was established in 1982, and was one of the six working groups overseen by the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights, the main subsidiary body of the United...

 in 1982. He serves on the Executive Committee of the Global Forum of Spiritual and Parliamentary Leaders on Human Survival, and is a principal figure in the Traditional Circle of Indian Elders. He was a negotiator between the governments of Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....

, New York State and the Mohawk Indians in the Oka crisis
Oka Crisis
The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada which began on July 11, 1990 and lasted until September 26, 1990. At least one person died as a result...

 during the summer of 1990.

Lyons appeared on a one-hour documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...

 Faithkeeper. produced and hosted by Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers
Bill Moyers is an American journalist and public commentator. He served as White House Press Secretary in the United States President Lyndon B. Johnson Administration from 1965 to 1967. He worked as a news commentator on television for ten years. Moyers has had an extensive involvement with public...

 and broadcast on PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....

, July 3, 1991.

In 1992 he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations where he opened the International Year of the World's Indigenous People

Recognition

Lyons has been awarded an honorary
Honorary degree
An honorary degree or a degree honoris causa is an academic degree for which a university has waived the usual requirements, such as matriculation, residence, study, and the passing of examinations...

 Doctor of Laws degree from Syracuse University.

He has been the recipient of the Ellis Island Congressional Medal of Honor
Ellis Island Medal of Honor
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor was founded by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations and intended to pay homage to the immigrant experience. The medals honor the contribution made to America by immigrants and the legacy they left behind in the successes of their children and grand-children...

, the National Audubon
National Audubon Society
The National Audubon Society is an American non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Incorporated in 1905, Audubon is one of the oldest of such organizations in the world and uses science, education and grassroots advocacy to advance its conservation mission...

 Award, the Earth Day
Earth Day
Earth Day is a day that is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for the Earth's natural environment. The name and concept of Earth Day was allegedly pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. The first Proclamation of Earth Day was by San Francisco, the...

 International Award of the United Nations, and the Elder and Wiser Award of the Rosa Parks Institute for Human Rights. Lyons serves on the board of the Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development
The Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development was founded in 1987 at the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University...

 and is board chairman of Honoring Contributions in the Governance of American Indian Nations.

Lyons is also remembered for his time as a lacrosse player. He is Honorary Chairman of the Iroquois Nationals
Iroquois Nationals
The Iroquois Nationals are the national lacrosse team of the Six Nations of the Iroquois League that competes in international competition. The team was admitted to the International Lacrosse Federation in 1990 and is the only Native American/First Nations team sanctioned to compete in any sport...

. In 1989 he was named Man of the Year in Lacrosse by the NCAA
National Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...

.

His legendary performance as goalkeeper for Syracuse University, with Jim Brown on the undefeated 1957 national champion team, led to the induction of Oren R. Lyons, Jr. into the National Lacrosse Hall of Fame.

Published works

Lyons has authored numerous books. He has also illustrated children's books in collaboration with Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve
Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve is an American writer of Children's literatureShe was a Sioux mother. She studied journalism at the South Dakota State University. She was an English language teacher in several public schools, editor at the Brevet Press in Sioux Fall, S.D...

 (Brulé Lakota). He is the published of Daybreak Magazine.
  • Gluckstein, Dana, author; Amnesty International
    Amnesty International
    Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...

    , epilogue; Oren Lyons, introduction; Archbishop Desmond Tutu, foreword. Dignity: In Honor of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. powerHouse Books, 2010. ISBN 978-1576875629
  • Jorgensen, William, ed.; Oren Lyons, foreword. Rebuilding Native Nations: Strategies for Governance and Development. University of Arizona Press, 2007. ISBN 978-0816524235.
  • Lyons, Oren, Donald Grinde, Robert Venables, John Mohawk, Howard Berman, Vine Deloria, Jr.
    Vine Deloria, Jr.
    Vine Deloria, Jr. was an American Indian author, theologian, historian, and activist. He was widely known for his book Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto , which helped generate national attention to Native American issues in the same year as the Alcatraz-Red Power Movement...

    , Laurence Hauptman, and Curtis Berkey. Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations and the U.S. Constitution. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publications, 1998. ISBN 978-0940666504.
  • Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk, author, and Oren Lyons, illustrator. High Elk's Treasure. Holiday House, 1995. ISBN 978-0823402120.
  • Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk, author, and Oren Lyons, illustrator. When Thunders Spoke. Bison Books, 1993. ISBN 978-0803292208.
  • Ewen, Alexander, ed. Oren Lyons, author. Voice of Indigenous Peoples: Native People Address the United Nations. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publications, 1993. ISBN 978-0940666313.
  • Lyons, Oren, John Mohawk, Vine Deloria, Jr., et al. Exiled in the Land of the Free: Democracy, Indian Nations, and the US Constitution. Santa Fe: Clear Light Publications, 1992. ASIN B002J47CW4.
  • Lyons, Oren. Wilderness in Native American culture. Boise: University of Idaho Wilderness Research Center, 1989. ASIN B00072A6JG.
  • Lyons, Oren, author and illustrator. Dog Story. Holiday House, 1973. ASIN B003BGS43K.
  • Sneve, Virginia Driving Hawk, author, and Oren Lyons, illustrator. Jimmy Yellow Hawk. Holiday House, 1972. ASIN B001KRU62Y.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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